He
said: “Passengers dislike having to pay to use toilets at stations, particularly when they have forked out on an expensive train ticket.

“However, we think passengers can live with paying a small fee provided this guarantees better toilet facilities.”

Raymond
Martin, director of the British Toilet Association, backed the move highlighting that the phrase ‘spending a penny’ dated back to an era when one old penny would have been worth 90p today.

Mr Martin said he was aware of public toilets elsewhere in Britain where a charge of 50p is made.

He
said: “In an ideal world, we want free, beautifully-clean and well-maintained public toilets open 24 hours a day. But we have to be realistic against the background of the current stringent economic times. We are not against charging in itself. Given a choice, the public
would rather have clean and pleasant toilets at a moderate cost rather than horrible and smelly toilets for free.

“The
phrase ‘spending a penny’ dates back to 1900 when the charge in public toilets was one old penny which, at today’s values is considerably more than 30p – in fact about 70p.

“The
British Toilet Association works with local authorities, and many other
agencies, to promote the concept of widely-available public toilets as we believe leads to more prosperous and well-regarded towns and cities.”

Network
Rail, which manages 17 of Britain’s biggest and busiest stations, said toilet facilities are available at all its stations, usually with a 30p charge.

It said the facilities are open to everyone, not just rail-users, and the small charge pays for their upkeep.

A
Network Rail spokesman said: “The small charge we make for using the public toilet facilities in our stations helps to maintain them, ensures
they are fully staffed and prevents misuse such as vandalism and other anti-social behaviour.

“Network
Rail is a ‘not for dividend’ company, which means any profit from station toilets is reinvested into the railway and passenger facilities.”

The first half of the New Street Station project was opened in April with the second phase due to be completed in 2015.

The
station handles 140,000 passengers a day – twice the capacity when the station was last brought up to date in the 1960s. However, rail watchdogs say that while the revamp will make life easier for travellers, the capacity of the station will not be increased.